Cruising progress 2018 (Click to enlarge)
31st July 2018
The wind and rain finally cleared and we were able to leave Gythion and head for an overnight anchorage off Elafonisos island. The next morning we continued our trip around the final headland, which has a bad reputation for very strong winds. However, we were lucky and motored around it in a flat calm and then carried on up to Monemvasia, a medieval castle town on the south eastern coast of the Peloponnese. Early next morning, before it got too hot, we walked up to the old town and wandered around the lovely old cobbled streets before climbing up the steep slopes to the 12th century Aghia Sofia Church, which stands 300 metres above sea level. The view from the top was incredible.
Our next stop was Porto Heli. We stayed there for quite a few days, catching up with our friends on Windhover and Coco. This area is known as the "Riviera of the Peloponnese", although the town itself is not particularly attractive but there are some lovely bays nearby. There is an excellent supermarket very close to where we tied up the dinghy, so we stocked up with more water, beer and wine. All the essential heavy stuff! The bay is really well protected from the wind and is pretty calm most of the time.
On our way up to Nafplio we anchored overnight at Kilada and next morning took the dinghy across the bay to visit Franchthi cave which is thought to be at least 40,000 years old. The temperature finally hit 40°C when we visited Nafplio, which is a lovely city at the head of the bay and was the capital of Greece between 1823 and 1834. Palamidi Castle dominates the landscape but you have to climb 999 steps to reach it. We had already been up the last time we were there about 20 years ago, in fact Mike jogged up the steps back then! Unfortunately, it was far too hot to attempt it and I don't think my knees would have held out going up and down 2000 steps, so we decided to stick to trips at ground level.
We returned to Porto Heli for a couple of days, to sit out the next lot of strong winds and then set off for the island of Poros. We had a great sail across to the next island, but when we rounded the top, the wind picked up and the sky became very black. We managed get some shelter in a bay and anchored with quite a few other boats just before the thunder, lightning and rain started. Luckily it only lasted as long as it took to have our lunch, and we were able to set off again with a nice clean boat.
Poros was very busy so we carried on to another sheltered spot at the head of the bay where we anchored for the night, before continuing on to Aigina. Mike had been making enquiries at a yard here about winter storage for Mistroma, so we anchored off the yard and took the dinghy ashore for a look around. It's much more basic than we've been used to, but we're running out of options for this winter, so we've decided that it will have to do. One advantage is that it's reasonably close to Athens - only one hour on the ferry and has a supermarket and several tavernas nearby.
Now that the storage has been finalised we're free to head off wherever the urge takes us, so we motored over to Korfos on the mainland, where we met up with our friends George and Anne on Coco. Anne swam over to us and invited us over for a meal in the evening, as this would be the last time we'd see them because they're heading back through the Corinth Canal to Preveza before returning to Scotland and then home to America.
An hour or so later we had thunder and lightning all round us and then wind and torrential rain which lasted for a couple of hours. The wind changed direction which caused the anchor to drag slightly before resetting, but we ended up too close to Coco, so tried re-anchoring but couldn't get it to hold. We then attempted to pick up a mooring, which isn't easy in virtually zero visibility and strong winds but eventually we managed it and a short while later the rain eased and calm was restored and yet again we had a lovely clean boat. One thing we did discover was that both sets of waterproofs are no longer waterproof! Mine were new just before we left the UK and we haven't worn them for the last couple of years. Hopefully we can re-proof them and they'll last a bit longer or we can just get wet! By the time we got dried off and everything tidied up we were only slightly late for our dinner date on Coco, where a good time was had by all.
